


After the Battle

by ericsonclan



Series: A Pirate's Life For Me AU [16]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25043761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ericsonclan/pseuds/ericsonclan
Summary: Louis and Prisha share their suffering in the wake of the fight with the Delta pirates.
Relationships: Clementine/Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Prisha & Louis (Walking Dead: Done Running), Prisha/Violet (Walking Dead: Done Running)
Series: A Pirate's Life For Me AU [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683673
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Those Who Wait

**Author's Note:**

> (by Laura)

Louis stepped out upon the deck of the ship, his head throbbing from the hours of sleep he’d denied himself. It was three days now since Lily’s ship had attacked them and they’d had to face off against Minerva, the street rats’ former friend. How could a friend do something like this? He’d never understand. He looked around, seeing Aasim at the helm while Willy kept watch in the crows’ nest. Brody and Mitch were up in the rigging changing the sails. Tenn and A.J. were with Violet and Clementine. Ruby was taking a well-deserved nap.

He noticed Prisha standing on top of the bannister on the side of the ship, holding onto one of the ropes with her good hand. She seemed to be looking down into the waters as the ship cut through. Louis made his way over to check on her. She didn’t turn to look as he stood below her on her left side.

“Have you slept yet?

“What?” Prisha mumbled. She hadn’t seemed to take in his words.

“Sleep, Prisha. You need to take it. You were injured; you need to rest,”

Prisha scoffed, looking down at her side. “This thing? It doesn’t deserve any pity. You were injured too back there. I don’t see you taking it easy,”

“Not ‘easy’, but I’ve slept. Have you?”

“In passing,” Prisha’s eyes were glassy as she looked out on the sea. He could tell that she was holding back tears. “I can hear her through the walls,”

Almost every moment that Violet was awake, she was crying. It was either the soft, subdued tears when she was laying still, facing the never-ending pain of the burns covering her face, or the unrestrained wails whenever Ruby had to clean her wounds or change the bandages. The only peace she found was when sleep overtook her, but even that mercy was ephemeral at best, with 

Violet reawakening whenever the ship hit a particularly large swell or made a sharp turn.

Louis wasn’t sure what to offer her. There wasn’t anything he could say to fix it or any wisdom his words could offer.

Prisha swayed slightly as a wave rocked the boat. “It’s my fault,”

“That Vi got hurt?”

Prisha didn’t answer.

“You know that Violet doesn’t see it that way,”

“It doesn’t change the facts,” Prisha spat, her words catching in her throat.

“You didn’t cause the explosion,”

“But she came across to save me! If I’d held out for just a minute more, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Violet would be fine. Now we don’t know if she’ll ever see again,”

“She’s making out colors now. Some shapes too,”

Prisha shook her head. “It’ll never be the same,” She looked down at her left arm. “You know how I deal with having a bum arm? By still having another that’s fully functioning. And by never forgetting the face of the one who left me like this or the utter hatred I feel toward her,”

“Violet doesn’t hate you,”

“She’d have every right to,”

“That’s not who Violet is,” Louis leaned forward, trying to get Prisha to look at him. “Prisha, have you talked with Violet about this?”

“I’m not going to rob the little peace she has in times when the pain ebbs with conversations like this,”

“Well, you should. Because she’d tell you the same thing I am. Violet loves you, Prisha. Saving your life isn’t something she’d ever regret,”

Prisha said nothing.

Louis stood with her in the silence, wondering what more he could do to change her mind. The boat was rocked by another wave. Prisha’s stance held, but she leaned further over the water. Louis’ eyes jumped up, examining her hold on the rope. “Prisha, do you know how to swim?”

She looked dazed, as if all she could hear were her own tormented thoughts.

A harder wave hit.

“Prisha!” Louis cried as her hand lost its grip. His arms wrapped tightly round her waist, pulling her backwards as they both hit the deck hard. He could hear the others exclaim in shock as the noise drew their attention. Prisha lay limp in his arms, utterly defeated as the tears fell. Her body shook against him, overcome with grief. Louis sighed heavily, taking her up in his arms as he rose. He looked around at the rest of the crew. “I’m taking her below decks. She needs to rest,”

\---

The second sleeping room was empty when they came inside. Ruby must have fallen asleep in one of the bunks in the first room so she could keep an eye on Violet. Louis carried Prisha over to her hammock on the far side of the room. He could feel a dull burn in his left arm that made him absent-mindedly wonder if he’d torn his stitches. That was a matter for another time. As he laid Prisha down gently upon her hammock, her eyes met his wearily. “I won’t sleep. Nothing works. I can still hear her,”

Louis knelt beside her, putting a hand to her forehead. It was clammy and hot. “Prisha, it’s quiet right now. Vi’s sleeping,”

“It doesn’t matter. I can still hear it inside my head, the way she cries. It never goes away. God, if it could only be silent for one damn minute…”

“No, you don’t want that,” Louis’ voice broke with emotion. “If anything, the silence is worse,”

Prisha looked at him in confusion, her eyelashes still damp with tears. “What do you mean?”

Louis looked down at the floor, ashamed. He couldn’t be falling apart right when Prisha needed him.

“Louis,” Prisha’s hand reached out, barely brushing his shoulder. “How’s Clementine?”

“She never speaks,” Louis let out a shaky sigh. “Never complains, never cries. She just lays there, silently suffering. Even when Ruby comes in to clean and debride her leg, she still won’t cry. She bites her lip so damn hard it bleeds. I tell her to take my hand, to squeeze it as hard as she needs, but she doesn’t want me to touch her. So we just sit there, in silence. And I pray that she won’t d-” He choked on the last word, shoulders seizing as the tears came.

Prisha pulled him towards her, wrapping her good arm round his head as it lay against her shoulder, gently stroking his hair while he continued to weep.

He could feel his own head grow damp with her tears.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” Prisha whispered. “The cries or the silence,”

“Both are hell,”

Their tears did not dry. They flowed freely, consuming both victims as they clung desperately to each other, rocking back and forth with the ship and the waves of their own grief. Eventually, the rhythm lulled them, stilling the terror that raged inside their minds. Neither was aware of the transition, but gradually their breathing slowed and they each fell into deep, dreamless sleeps.


	2. Kissing Your Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weeks after the battle with the Delta pirates, Violet and Prisha are still attempting to navigate the trauma they must now live with.

Violet awakened with a dull groan. The pain was still there - it always was – but she could tell that it had decreased over these past few weeks. When they’d first laid her down on her hammock after the accident, her entire face had felt like an exposed nerve, burning in agonizing pain with the smallest jostle or nudge. There was never any reprieve; existence was pain. Now at least she could lay still and dwell in the dull, burning ache without it overwhelming her very ability to think. Someday this pain would be gone, even though at this point Violet couldn’t even truly remember what living without pain would feel like. She simply had to believe that things would heal in their own time. There was no way to rush the process.

She heard stirring across from her. Cautiously, Violet turned her head to see Prisha waking up. Willy had offered to switch hammocks with her so Prisha would have a place to rest near Violet instead of sleeping on the floor underneath. As Prisha woke, she noticed that Violet was up as well and rose, walking over to where a wet rag lay in a bowl of water beside the hammock. Wringing it out, she came over to Violet and began to place the cool fabric against her skin, being careful to avoid any of the burn marks that were spread widely across her face. “Sleep well?” Prisha asked, meeting Violet’s gaze for a moment before turning to dip the cloth back in the cool water.

“Yeah,” Violet managed. Her throat was still raspy and rough, a byproduct of all the smoke she’d inhaled during the attack. Her cries of pain the first few days had only aggravated the issue, leaving her windpipe raw as the hours crawled onward.

“You need water,” Prisha noted, glancing at the bowl. “I’ll get you something fresh,”

She’d already left before Violet could summon the energy to protest. Violet lay alone in the stillness of the ship, nothing but the faint rocking of her hammock to show they were moving at all. She closed her eyes, feeling the weight of her emotions threatening to overwhelm her. Ever since the accident, everything with Prisha had been so… clinical. In the first few days when she’d been drifting in and out of consciousness, Violet could sometimes make out Prisha in the background, carrying some sort of supplies for Ruby, holding Violet in place as disinfectant was applied, standing in the background watching as the others spoke to Violet and let her know what was going on and where they were headed. After Clem’s amputation and the necessity of Ruby being ever present by her side, Prisha had taken over the role of a nurse for Violet: checking her dressings, making sure she was hydrated and cooled, encouraging her to rest with the promise that soon the pain would be behind her.

Prisha never touched her though. Her hands on Violet were practical and to the point, accomplishing what was needed and nothing more. There were no moments of tenderness, no gentle caresses. Everything was measured, calculated. Most times when Prisha told her to rest and recuperate, Violet closed her eyes in part to escape from that tone in Prisha’s voice, terror buried deep within the recesses on her words. Her lover was afraid of her.

She was maimed now, a withered shadow of her former self. Not that Violet had ever been a great beauty, but now it was clear that there was nothing redeemable to be found when looking upon her. She hadn’t bothered to ask for a mirror. It was clear from everyone’s reactions whenever the bandages were replaced that her face had been marred in ways that would never be repaired. Besides, even if she held a mirror up to her face, all she would see was a reddened blur, the colors bleeding together just as they forever would in the world around her. She was a blind freak whose entire existence was this hammock, swaying back and forth, back and forth as the silence and her lover’s brisk, clinical hands drove her mad.

Prisha reentered the room and a cup soon appeared underneath Violet’s lips. 

She drank, wincing a bit as the cold water hit the back of her throat.

“Did you get enough?”

“Yeah,” Violet murmured.

“OK. I’ll be right over there if you need anything. Try to sleep a bit more if you can,”

God, not more sleep. She couldn’t take another minute of waiting for the darkness to envelop her once more. “Prisha,” the name was choked out.

Prisha stilled beside her. “Yes?”

There was so much she wanted to ask, but every question terrified her. Did Prisha resent taking care of her, being her nursemaid day in and day out? Was she staying here out of a sense of obligation or guilt? Were these the last moments they would spend together, with Prisha disappearing for parts unknown as soon as Violet could stand on her own two feet? Did she hate Violet now that she looked like... this?”

“What is it, Violet?”

She couldn’t get any of those words out. Violet felt her eyes burning with tears, obscuring the little vision she still had left. Her hand shot out blindly, grasping desperately for Prisha’s. As she found it, her fingers closed around it like a vice.

“Vi, what’s wrong? Are you in pain?”

“I’m- sorry,” the words came out sharply as Violet’s throat constricted in fear.

“Sorry for what?”

“This,” Violet gestured weakly toward her face with her free hand. “All of it. Should’ve dodged Minerva’s attack. Then we wouldn’t-” she coughed sharply, throat catching. “Be here,”

“Oh, Vi…” The pain in Prisha’s voice was palpable. “Don’t say things like that. It was my fault, not yours,” She let out a shaky sigh. “I shouldn’t be hovering around you like this. All I’m doing is haunting your thoughts with my presence. I’ll ask someone else to take a turn for a while. Louis, or Willy…”

“No!” Violet frantically pulled Prisha’s arm closer to her. “Please, I…” she was at a total loss for words. How could she say everything that was tangled up inside of her, let Prisha know that she needed her here, needed to feel the warmth of her hands… needed her to stay? Silently, Violet lifted Prisha’s hand up to her chapped lips and placed a single kiss.

A rough sob came from Prisha’s throat. She was disgusted. She couldn’t hide it any longer. “Violet…” Suddenly there was warmth against her skin. Prisha’s hand was cupping her face. Before she could react, Violet’s cracked, broken lips were captured in a kiss. She moaned into it, a mixture of pain and utter disbelief.

Prisha pulled away in an instant. “I’m sorry! Did I hurt you?”

“… Do it again. Please,”

Prisha acquiesced, her lips touching Violet’s tenderly, hesitantly. Her lips travelled past Violet’s, caressing a cheekbone, brushing against her forehead, hovering over her. Violet tried to sit up a bit to meet her lips. Prisha’s returned to hers willingly, soft and wet and warm. Life-giving. “Violet,” Prisha murmured, pulling away for a mere moment before diving back in. “Violet, Violet, Violet…”

“Pri—sha…” Violet breathed out shakily. “Pri-” she was silenced again with a kiss.

At last they pulled away, both in need of air. Violet’s hand was still in Prisha’s. Prisha reached to scoop the other in the same hand as well. She raised Violet’s hands to her lips, placing a reverent kiss upon them. Her head turned as she nuzzled her cheek against them.

“So…” Violet ventured, “You don’t hate me?”

“Hate you? Vi, you don’t hate _me_?”

“I could never hate you,”

A breathy chuckle escaped Prisha. She brought Violet’s hands to her lips again. “I feel the same,”

“Then what the fuck have we been doing these past two weeks?”

“I have no idea. I was so afraid, terrified that you blamed me. I am to blame,”

“Prisha, no,” Violet reached a hand up to touch her lover’s cheek. It was slick with tears. “You’re alive, Prisha. If you died… it’d be worse than all this. I can’t think about it.”

“I can’t bear to see you like this,”

Violet’s heart fell. “I know-”

“You’re in so much pain,” Prisha interrupted her. “Every cry, every whimper is like a knife to my gut. And I can’t make it go away. I’m so useless!”

“I don’t care about the pain. I’ve felt pain before; I can deal with it,”

“But you shouldn’t have to!”

“It is what it is. Prisha…” Violet found the fear rising in her again. She wanted to ask but couldn’t.”

“What is it?”

_Just say it._

“Tell me, please. I want to know,” Prisha’s hand reached out, brushing the hair from Violet’s face. “Please, you can tell me anything,”

“Do you still… want me? Like this?”

“Vi…” The hand gently wiped the tears that were escaping her eyes. “I could never not want you. You wanted me even when I only had one good arm. How is this any different?”

“But it’s my face. It’s-” She was cut short by Prisha’s mouth covering her own. The kiss was deep, so much so that Violet felt herself disappearing within it. When they pulled apart, her mind was in a dreamy haze.

“From the moment I saw you approaching me when I was pinned under that wreckage, I thought you were just about the prettiest thing I’d laid eyes on, rags and all,” 

Violet could picture the wry smile that must be on Prisha’s face from the memory. 

“These scars, the sacrifice you made, they’re a testament to your love. A reminder of how much you care for me. They don’t mar your beauty at all,”

“I wish-” Violet’s voice broke with emotion. “I really wish I could see your face right now,”

Prisha let out a short sob. “I’ll bring it closer,” She leaned forward, resting her forehead against Violet’s. “Violet, I swear I’ll find a way to restore your sight. If I have to scour the depths of the seven seas,”

“No,” Violet stopped her, a hand caressing her neck. “The sight, the scars, don’t think for a second I regret them. As long as you’re with me…” a small smile crossed her lips. “As long as we stand together, I don’t care about any of that,”

Prisha’s breath was shaky. Her face was close enough for Violet to see the smile on her lips. “I will always be by your side, Violet. I swear it,”

“I… I love you, Prisha,”

Prisha leaned the slightest bit forward, placing the gentlest kiss on the tip of Violet’s nose. “I love you too,”

All was said and done now. The silence was gone, replaced by the warmth of each others’ touch. Whatever the future held, they’d face it together. That was all the strength either of them needed.


End file.
